Earth from House: Tokyo, Japan

This Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar picture exhibits Tokyo and its metropolitan space, the biggest city agglomeration on the planet.

Zoom in to discover this picture at its full 10 m decision.

Japan’s capital lies on the jap shore of Honshu, the biggest of Japan’s 4 primary islands. Tokyo metropolis has greater than 14 million inhabitants, whereas the Higher Tokyo Space, which incorporates Tokyo and elements of the neighbouring prefectures, is dwelling to greater than 40 million folks.

The brilliant gray and white tones of this city conurbation dominate the centre of the picture and are in sharp distinction to the colors within the ocean and water our bodies.

Three primary rivers could be seen winding by means of the city space, then flowing into Tokyo Bay. The central river is the Arakawa, with the Edo river to the north and the Tama to the south. Tokyo’s centre lies primarily south of the Arakawa river, whereas on the mouth of the Tama, the runways of Haneda Airport are additionally seen.

This picture is a mixture of three radar acquisitions throughout 2024 and highlights modifications that occurred between every seize. A color is assigned to every acquisition date: pink for 16 August, inexperienced for 28 August and blue for 9 September.  

Shades of gray point out areas with no modifications, such because the Tokyo Metropolitan Space with a excessive density of buildings and buildings, which seem vivid gray or white.

The combo of colors within the ocean water denotes modifications on the floor, which occurred in the course of the dates of acquisition, attributable to winds or currents. Ships in Tokyo Bay seem as multi-coloured dots, with the color comparable to the date of acquisition. 

Within the prime proper nook, Lake Kasumigaura stands out in darkish blue hues, because of its floor roughness in the course of the third acquisition. One of many actions carried out on Kasumigaura is pearl cultivation, with its buildings seen as white, rectangular options on the lake.

Radar information are significantly helpful for detecting floor options and are subsequently used to map the topography. For instance, within the left facet of the picture we are able to see the mountain reliefs of the Chichibu-Tama-Kai Nationwide Park within the higher half and Mount Fuji to its south close to the coast.

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission gives all-weather, day-and-night radar imagery of Earth’s land and oceans, which is beneficial for monitoring evolving conditions, equivalent to floor actions, city growth and ship monitoring.